Clutch holder



F. F. WUNDER. CLUTCH HOLDER.

APPLICATION FILED MNQ30| I922.

Patented Nov. 7, 1922.

wmuro/r 17 [7176024 or,

WITNESSES l1 TTOR/VEYS I Patented Nov. 7, 1922..

FREDERICK WUNDER, F VALLEY FALLS, KANSAS.

CLUTCH HOLDER; I

Application filed January 30, 1922. Serial No. 532,574.

To all whom it may concern: 6 in posit-ion to be conveniently operated by I Be it known that I, FRANK F. lVUNDER, a the foot of an operator of the tractor and citizen of the United States, and a resident moved against the action of a spring (not of Valley Falls, in the county of Jefferson shown) from the dotted line position in and State of Kansas, have invented certain Fig. 1 to the full line position in tie same 60 new and useful Improvements in Clutch figure. ,The clutch control lever is sup- Holders, of which the following is a speciported in a plane above that of the exhaust fication. pipe 2. r I My invention relates to improvements in The parts described so far are ordinary in devices which are adapted for attachment construction .nd form no part of my inven- 65 to a tractor to en age a clutch control lever tion except in so far as they cooperate with of the tractor to releasably hold the latter the parts which will now be described. in position to occasion the releasing of the In carrying out myinventioml make use driving connection between the engine of of a single piece of metal 7 of bar formation the tractorand the transmission thereof, which is by preference flat and which may 70 without disengaging thegears of thetrans be made of any material having inherent mission. p T spring qualities and being sufficiently strong An object of my invention is to provide for the purposeintendech as will be under an improvement over the clutchholder disstood from theffollowing. The bar 7 is closed in my prior applicationfor Letters twisted at 8 at a predetermined distance 5 Patent of the United States, Serial No. from the lower end thereof andthe portion 512,236 filed November 2, 1921, in which a of the bar below the twisted portion is bent clutch holder of the character described is to provide a clamping ring 9 having its axis disclosed, said improvement consisting in extending substantially at right angles to the provision of a clutch holder which is the axisof the body of the bar. The clamp- 0' equally effective for the purpose intended ingring portion 9 is of course of the split and in which the construction is simplified. ring type and the lower extremity of the bar A further'object of my invention. is to is bent at 10 to extend in parallelism with provide a clutch holder'which comprises but the lower part of the twisted portion 8 and a single piece of a material having suflicient being adjacent thereto. 85 inherent resiliency to render it suitable for The clamping ring 9 is adapted to e i-- the purpose intended and an element for brace the exhaust pipe 2 and is secured fastening the clutch holder to a tractor. thereon through the agency ofa bolt 11 pro- Other objects and advantages will be apjeoted through alined openings formed parent from the following'description, and through the bent portion lO'and the lower 90' the novel features of the invention will be part of the twisted portion 8. particularly outlined in the appended The bar 7 is bent laterally adjacent to claims. its upper end to provide a hook portion 12 My invention is illustrated in the accomhaving an upper side 13 joined to the body 40 panying drawings, fOI'lTllIlg a part of this of the bar ata'n angle less than fThe application in which upper end portion 1 1 of the bar is then bent Fig.1 is aside elevation of a tractor rearwardly and upwardly of its line of equipped with my invention, juncture with the upper side portion of Fig. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the hook and extends at an acute angle to 45 the holder detached from the tractor, and the latter. I

Fig. 3 is a view, partly diagrammatical, From the foregoing description of the showing the clutch holder in active or envarious parts of the device, the operation gaged position. thereof may be readilyunderstood. When Referring now to the drawings, a tractor the device is intended for application to 50 of a well knowntype'of construction is desthe tractor illustrated, the line of juncture 105 ignated generally at 1. The tractor emof the upper side 13 of the hook 12 with bodies an exhaust pipe 2 extending rearthe body of the bar is inclined from the wardly of an engine 3. A clutch control horizontal when the body of the bar is in lever 4: having a horizontally disposed footperpendicular position. so that the upper .55 engaging portion 5 is pivot-ally supported at side 13 of the 131091 W l. be h ontally dis- 1 0 posed when the body of the holder is inclined or tilted laterally of the tractor, as best seen in Fig. 3. The clutch holder is positioned upon the exhaust pipe 2 so that the foot-engaging portion 5 of the clutch control lever 4 in passing from the dotted line position illustrated in Fig. 1 to the full line position of the same figure, will contact adjacent to its outer end with the inclined upper end portion 14 of the clutch holder. The swinging portion 5 of the clutch control lever will push the upper end of the body 7 before it until the portion 5 has passed below the plane of the juncture of the end portion 14 with the upper side of the hook portion 12. The inherent resiliency of thebody of the clutch holder will then cause the upper end portion thereof to spring back to the position from which moved by the portion 5 of the'clutch control lever and the latter will be engaged adjacent to. its outer, end by the hook portion 12, whereby the clutch control lever will be held against-return to the dotted line position of Fig. 1. It will be understood of course that when the clutch control lever is in the full line position of. Fig. 1, the driving connection between the engine of the tractor and the transmission will be disengaged with the necessity for disengagingthe gears of the transmission obviated. I

\Vhen it is desired to disengage the clutch-'5 control lever 4 from the hook 12 to permit of the return thereof to the dotted line position shown in Fig. 1, the foot of the operator is pressed or sharply struck against the upper part of the end portion 141, thereby bringing the upper side'13 of the hook 152 upwardly and forwardly to a sufiicient extent to release the foot-engaging portion 5 which will swing upwardly against the foot of the operator and may be permitted to return to initial or dotted line position by relaxing the pressure of the foot thereagainst. VWien the clutch control lever 1 is in .the dotted line position of Fig. 1, the driving connection between the engine of the tractor and the transmission will be again established. I

It will thus be apparent that I provide a clutch holder of a very simple construction which can be manufactured cheaply and readily applied to a tractor for use in performing the functions described. Obvi ously, my invention is susceptible of embodiment in forms varying in detail from that illustrated in the accompanying drawings and I therefore consider as my own, all such. modifications and adaptations of the form of the device illustrated and described herein as fairly fall within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim 1. As an article of manufacture, a clutch holder comprising an elongated body having an integral hook portion at one end thereof and a clamping ring portion at the other end thereof.

2. As an article of manufacture, a clutch holder comprising a straight elongated body having a hook portion at one end thereof, a clamping ring portion at the other end thereof, and a twisted portion merging the clamping ring portion and the body one into theother.

3. As an article of manufacture, a clutch holder formed of a single bar made of a material having spring qualities and being fashioned to provide a straight body portion, a hook portion at one end of the body, a clamping ring portion at the other end ofthe body, and a twisted portion merging the clamping ring portion and the body one into the other, whereby the axis of the clamping ring portion extends substantially at right angles to the axis of the body.

4. As an article of manufacture, a clutch holder comprising a single bar of a material having spring qualities, said bar being fashioned to provide a straight body and being bent at one end of the body laterally and downwardly to provide the upper side of a hook portion and then backward-1y and upwardly to provide an inclined extension to the upper side of the hook portion, said bar being bent to provide a twisted portion at the opposite end of the body and a clamping ring portion at the end of the twisted portion, said clamping ring portion having an end bent radially to extend in parallelism with the lower part of the twisted portion and being adjacent thereto, and the axis of said clamping ring portion extending. substantially at right angles to the axis of the body. p

5. As an article of manufacture, a clutch holder comprising an elongated body made of a material having inherent resilient spring vqualities and being adapted at its one end for attachment to a fixed support,

and an integral hook portion at the other end of the body, said hook portion having a bar-like extension merged into the bill of the hook at its extremity and extending rearwardly and upwardly'to lie in angular relation to the bill of the hook, as and for the purpose set forth.

FRANK FREDERICK WUNDER. 

